A group of top US law school students say Big Law firms are 'willful instruments of Moscow's war machine.' They're calling on firms to sever all ties with Russia.

• More than 300 law students have urged law firms to dump all of their Russian clients.
• They asked firms to do more than just close offices in Moscow.

Editor's note: This story was originally published on March 16, 2022.

Law students from Yale, Harvard, Stanford, and other top US law schools have signed a letter urging international law firms to completely stop serving Russian clients. They said any firm that hadn't cut ties with the Kremlin and its supporters was a "willful instrument of Moscow's war machine."

The letter came in the wake of announcements by at least 19 law firms based in the US, UK, and Sweden that they would be closing their Moscow offices. The law students who signed the letter said firms should go further and end all business relationships with Russian clients.

"A commitment to 'review' and 'reevaluate' work 'reasonably believed connected' to Putin's regime is woefully inadequate," the students wrote in their letter. "As law students, we are particularly attuned to indefinite language; we know better than anyone our professions' gift for finding loopholes and working within ambiguity."

Law students have been flexing their activism muscles in recent years to try to spur changes in the traditionally hidebound world of law firms. In 2018, the People's Parity Project lobbied law firms — some of them successfully — to stop forcing lawyers to arbitrate employment disputes. And in 2020, a group called Law Students for Climate Accountability began pressuring law firms to stop doing deals for oil and gas companies.

The letter had more than 300 signatures as of March 23 and was signed by people who identified themselves as students at the law schools of New York University, Duke, the University of California, Berkeley, and UCLA, among others.

It was shared on LinkedIn by Jackie Schaeffer, a law student at Stanford who said she was the daughter of Ukrainian refugees. Schaeffer said the idea for the letter came about when she saw laudatory media coverage of law firms' announcements that they would withdraw from Russia.

"That felt extremely bizarre," she said, "and really lit a fire under me and other students and professors that are involved."

One signer, Ryan Donahue, said he withdrew from a summer associate program at a large law firm after he was unsatisfied with its response to Russia's attack on Ukraine.

More than a week passed after Russian forces pushed into Ukraine on February 24 before foreign law firms began to cut ties with Russia. At least one firm, Norton Rose Fulbright, initially asked its employees to refrain from commenting on new US sanctions, though it later issued a statement expressing "shock" at the "tragic events unfolding in the Ukraine."

Some lawyers and commentators chalked up the delay to legal and ethical obligations. Ethics rules often prohibit a lawyer from dropping a client in the middle of a court case. The student letter calls on law firms that must keep working for Russian clients to donate their profits to Ukrainian relief efforts.

Over the years, some law firms have made tens or hundreds of millions of dollars representing Russia's government, state-owned banks and energy companies, and businesses run by people with government connections.

More than $42 million in fees paid by the Russian government to White & Case, Cleary Gottlieb, and Baker Botts have been disclosed in arbitration awards dating to 2014. Many more firms have done deal work for Russian banks and oil and gas companies, for which fees typically don't become public.

Here's the full letter from law students to Big Law:

We, the undersigned law students, are deeply disturbed that some of the world's largest law firms continue to act on behalf of Moscow's interests and represent Russian clients, including oligarchs and Kremlin-linked companies.

As company after company withdraws from the Russian economy, one group has been unacceptably slow to join the exodus: law firms. Many of America's largest firms continue to profit from the laundered billions of Russian elites. In doing so, they stand in defiance of the international community and undercut global sanctions.

Moscow's all-out assault on Ukraine has brought attention to an ugly, long-standing reality: Russian aggression has been emboldened and abetted by a powerful arsenal of Western-led law firms serving the interests of Putin's inner circle. To date, a handful of these firms have yet to commit to any policy changes, opting to leave their Moscow offices open or continue their representation of Kremlin-linked clients. More than just enablers, these firms have become willful instruments of Moscow's war machine.

In recent days, many firms have taken the important steps of closing Russian offices and committing to cease representation of individuals, entities, and businesses tied to the Kremlin. While we commend this first step, we remain adamant that law firms can only meaningfully fulfill this commitment by withdrawing from all business relationships with Russian clients. It means little to shut down Moscow offices when the same work is simply redirected to London.

In absence of any external accountability mechanisms, a commitment to 'review' and 'reevaluate' work 'reasonably believed connected' to Putin's regime is woefully inadequate. As law students, we are particularly attuned to indefinite language; we know better than anyone that legal professionals are adept at finding loopholes and working within ambiguity. At best, determining the extent of Kremlin ties is an altogether arbitrary exercise. With few exceptions, Russian clients that can afford to hire America's elite law firms are sufficiently Kremlin-tied.

As future attorneys, we call on law firms to put human life and the rule of law before profits and join the economic line against Putin's aggression. We demand that all law firms profiting from ties to Russia (i) shut down operations in Russia; (ii) forego new Russian clients; (iii) cease existing representation of all Russian clients unless barred by legal ethics; (iv) donate all profits to Ukrainian relief efforts where ethical duties make ending representation impossible.

If we take only one lesson from the profound courage of the Ukrainian people, it is that the rule of law is far from a given. It is a perpetual project, one that is fought and struggled for, asserted and reasserted, often at great sacrifice and cost. We look forward to joining you in this project.